The Song Remains The Same

[Click above for album images]

Ever since Royal Albert Hall on January 9, 1970, Led Zeppelin had a select few concerts professionally filmed. Until 2003's DVD, this was the only official video release that Zeppelin fans had to sink their teeth into.

All three nights, July 27, 28 and 29, 1973 were filmed and recorded and later mixed down by Eddie Kramer at Electric Ladyland Studios. More filming was to be done on their 1975 World Tour, but that never happened due to Plant's accident in Rhodes in August 1975. This soundtrack contains most of the songs that were located on the video/DVD. Black Dog and Since I've Been Loving You were songs from the movie that did not make it to the soundtrack.

There is some criticism that this another example of the 1970s excess and that it is not a true live album due to the fact that the movie and the soundtrack and made up of the three nights spliced together, however the official word is that, besides the music, there is very little splicing done with the lyrics, merely to correct cracks and mistakes in Plant's voice.

Included in the soundtrack is an essay, written by Cameron Crowe, that can be found here.

A stage replica was constructed at Shepperton Studios in August 1974 to re-shoot some close-up shots that were missed last July during filming.

Those with a trained eye will notice it is the Shepperton footage because of Page's shorter hair and Plant's capped teeth.

"Everything was reassembled from the ground up. The original soundtrack lives only in the old version, which is almost an excuse for having both because there are two different versions now. The new version is newly assembled audio. That's why when Warner Bros. says it's 'remastered,' that's not really descriptive, it's re-done. As Jimmy says, 'It's been revisited,' which is about as accurate as you can get." -- Kevin Shirley (2007)

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